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Hometown hero Tagliani on Nationwide pole in Montreal

August 16, 2012

Alex Tagliani, above, and Sam Hornish Jr. will start Sunday's Nationwide Series at Montreal on the front row. Photo by LAT PHOTOGRAPHIC

Patrick Carpentier did it in 2007, and Jacques Villeneuve did it last year. Now it's Alex Tagliani's turn to be the hometown hero by scoring his first NASCAR Nationwide Series pole on his home course in Montreal.

Although he did not qualify in the final group of five fastest cars in practice, Tagliani was able to turn the pole-winning lap in 1 minute, 40.865 seconds for a 96.687 mph average.

"I want to dedicate this pole to the fans who come and make this event so special," said Tagliani. "I feel that there was still a tenth or two left in the car. I wanted to do a third flying lap with the tire pressures and temperatures at their best but my crew chief Trent Owens wanted me to save fuel so we have one more lap to go in our first stint in the race."

Sam Hornish Jr. had to settle for the outside of the front row despite turning the best lap in the last qualifying group.

"It took me a little bit of time to find my marks on the course but when came the time to qualify, I felt pretty good," said Hornish, the best qualifier amongst the NASCAR Nationwide Series regulars. "I made a little mistake in one of the corners of my first lap by riding the curbs a little too much. That probably cost me the pole. I know that JV [Hornish's teammate, Jacques Villeneuve] rides them completely so I wanted to give it a try but I quickly realized that my car was not set up for that. This being said, a front-row start on a road course has to make you feel pretty good."

Villeneuve said he was disappointed by his performance even though he achieved the third-best lap of the qualifying session.

"I got surprised by the car which braked much more that I thought it would," said Villeneuve. "I braked too early all through my laps and ruined my starting position. At least, I know the car has good brakes, which is a good omen for the race."

Danica Patrick, with whom Villeneuve had a run-in at Road America, will start besides the Quebec native on the second row while Owen Kelly (qualifying the car for Kyle Busch), Michael McDowell, Cole Whitt, Ron Fellows, Billy Johnson and Brian Scott completed the top 10. Fellows is the only former winner of the NAPA Auto Parts 200 to take part in the race this year.

"It is a little disappointing to start this far back because track position is so crucial on those road courses," said Sadler. "We're going to meet tonight with the team to see if we can try to pull a rabbit out of our hat, strategy-wise, in order to make something happen."

As for the Quebec drivers, Andrew Ranger of Roxton Pond qualified 12th while Patrick Carpentier of Joliette, who scored the pole here in 2007 and came out of retirement for this one race in order to raise funds for the St. Justine's Children Hospital Foundation, had to settle for 13th.